This week’s (The first week of May) journal assignment is to write a journal of the kind you would find in a Chinese fortune cookie.The reading is from Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize winning economist, from the book, Development as Freedom.

Here is a picture of a fortune. I like this one!

Sydney gave us a great kick off! Thanks Sydney! Check out her awesome form, her deep insights, her pithy wisdom, her brevity! Now that is what I’m talkin’ about!

Do not seek wealth, as it is only a means to an end. Wealth cannot buy freedom.

Here are some samples from actual fortune cookies!

A warm smile is testimony of a generous nature.

If you continually give, you will continually have.

Before the beginning of great brilliance, there must be chaos.

If you don’t do it excellently, don’t do it at all.

“You are free to invent your life.”

A little bit on the history of fortune cookies.

Most of us enjoy Chinese food, but what we enjoy even more are the fortune cookies that we get at the end of the meal! Whether we actually eat the almond or vanilla flavored cookie is not important, what matters to most of us is the small paper inside with either a prediction or a saying. Whether they are inspirational quotes, funny quotes or romantic fortune cookie sayings, we all love reading them!

What’s even more interesting to know is that these sayings were not even created in China! There are two versions on the origin of fortune cookies. Some say that these sayings were invented in California, U.S.A. by a man named David Jung who owned the Hong Kong Noodle company. He began serving cookies with biblical sayings in them. Another version claims that fortune cookies were made in Japan. Researchers have gathered information which shows a man, in a picture book from the nineteenth century, making cookies. Well, wherever it was created and whoever made it, we all love them! (From Buzzle.com. Note, this is not proper citation form)

And here is one that makes me feel good!

Dear God, please give me the strength to change the things I can, the grace to accept the things I cannot, and a great big bag of money.

Enjoy, and do try to be deep, insightful, thoughtful or at a minimum, very funny.

Study Group Questions by Friday’s Class

1. Why did the protests and unrest in Egypt in the mid-1990s and the protest and unrest in 2010-2011 lead to very different outcomes? What was different in the causes, the mediums for communication, and the environment?

2. How have the Egyptian people’s demands been met and/or ignored after the removal of Hosni Mubarak?

3. What mediums of communication seemed to be important for protesters to learn about the January 25 protest? What mediums were important for disseminating information during it?

4. How did modernization and liberalizing the economy affect government power and corruption?

5. Who were the March 9 Movement, Kefaya, and Khaled Said?

Professor Bowman’s Questions

6. Why do you think the Islamists won the majority of the seats in Parliament?

7. Are the people in Tahrir Square the same people as those in Parliament? What institutional and structural factors make far reaching change difficult?

Citation: Tufekci, Z., Wilson, C. (2012). Social media and the decision to participate in political protest: Observations from Tahrir Square. Journal of Communication, 62, 363–379.Author note: Zeynep Tufekci publishes from the School of Information and Library Science and Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.